World Tree MUSH

    The strange woman that emerged from the pool of radiance coughs up the weird liquid. "Was. Was Baroness Spider. But wasn't *me*." She looks up and glances back at the pool and whispers "She lived." before trying to crawl further away from the embankment as quickly as she can.
    A brightly glowing spider, the size of two people, begins to emerge from the liquid, heading for the gathered people. Motes of light emanate from it and it attracks the firefly-like things that were previously clustered all around the webbing overhead. There's a clacking sound as its mouthparts twitch.

    Serrah stares at the woman for a moment, then back to the odd diamond in her hand. And then she yawns.

    "Y'know what, Aur," she says, "when I come to this Blossom, I never know whether it's gonna be, like, fighting time-puppers, or like dealing with squabbling between magical girls, or one of your great enemies is suddenly being defeated and/or freed from whoa!" She takes a step back from the spider-monster, eying it warily.

    She glances at Aurelia. "Well, Dr. Worm seems to have booked it," she says. "How're we doing this? Just 'hit it until it dies'?"

"Holy crap, was she always this big? Where's the citrus and vingear when you need it...are you able to get up?" Benedicta watches as the woman crawls away from the spider. She doesn't want her to get devoured after all. "Am I going to have transform?" She's not sure if bring the doll into this place is in the best idea after all. "After all there's no telling what might happen if I fall in the pool." She was seperate in two after all.

    As the woman emerges, Talia narrows her eyes in befuddlement. "I...take it THAT is the spider now." She points at the creature, before she draws her lightsaber from its belt again. "Alright then. I suppose we're not finished quite yet." She says, the lightsaber coming to life with its jade blade.

    Aurelia uhhhs... "Zero, get her to safety." She points at the former Baroness, whose problem seems to be simple muscle weakness. The metal lion noses the woman, who seems to get the hint and clambers atop Zero using the thick cables of his mane. The two are off towards the crack in the psuedo caldera.
    Turning back to the spider, which regards Aurelia with expressionless eyes, Aurelia struggles to answer Serrah's question. "Maybe it's not hostile?" She doesn't sound so sure, as she has her sword at the ready.
    The spider clackclacks. Instead of the bristly hairs spiders tend to have, there are wisps of flame. Worse, it seems to be getting larger as time passes. Finally, it flicks its two front legs, creating a mist of radiant light as the pool is disturbed by a gale of wind mixed with a fine skein of sticky webbing.

    Serrah frowns, glancing over her shoulder at Benedicta. "Let's hope we don't have to find stuff out the hard way," she says uneasily.

    She slaps her cheek a few times, and clears her throat. "Uh, hey!" she calls out to the spider uncertainly. "Uh ..."

    But then it starts flicking out the webbing, and she jumps straight up into the air to avoid it! "Okay, guess it is hostile!"

Benedicta on the other hand isn't so lucky as she tries to dodge but one of her feet get caught by the webbing making her stumble as she tries to pry herself free. "Ugh, I guess I have no choice. Watch my back for a moment." She begins to glow with a yellow light and the Almir'aj doll appears in the teenager's arms glowing as well.

    Talia leaps to evade the spider's silky strands of webbing. "Definitely hostile!" She calls out, swiping at the webbing with her lightsaber, trying to sever it. Let's see the webbing stand up to an ionized plasma blade made with magic crystals!

>> GAME >> Benedicta Cornell spends an Edge for: Twin Soul Time!

    The radiant mist feels weird to whomever it touches, like some kind of energizing force. Benedicta and Aurelia can sense that the stuff is somehow related to their magical power when it gets to them. Talia might think of it as being very similar to the Force but ultimately so passive that it only responds to the will of living things.
    Aurelia instinctily covers her armored face as the mist hits, and is then webbed and gummed into place. 
    She recognizes the substance from Orania's lessons over the past three years. "The water's soulfire, don't fall in!" She doesn't have time to elaborate before the spider pounces her, fangs scraping orichalcum as it tries to puncture the armor. There's a flailing of Aurelia's arms and the spider's legs.
    The light saber makes short work of the webbing. Serrah jumping straight up avoided it, and Aurelia blocked it from getting to Benedicta. The emerging problem is that there seems to be winds building up around the caldera, whipping dirt around for the moment. These winds are gaining speed as the spider grows.

Benedicta's human body grows seemingly lifeless as the Al-Mir'aj doll grows seemingly more lifelike and glows yellow. She takes advantage of the webbing to stick the human doll to it so it doesn't caught in the wind storm. Her claws elongate and she hops onto the spider trying to pry it off of Aurelia as she stabs at the creature.

    "Wh-" Talia is hit with the mist, trying to fight against it. She runs across the walls, evading the waters as Aurelia advises. "The winds are getting stronger!" She calls out, and she rushes towards the spider as it pounces onto Aurelia. "Get off her!" She calls out, plunging her lightsaber into its back once she mounts on top of it.

    "This mist feels weird," mutters Serrah. "Oh jeez ... be careful, Bene -- AURELIA!"

    One timestop later, and she's a few inches above the ground on the opposite side of the spider from Benedicta -- and half a dozen baseballs are flying at the spider's side.

    ... And now her baseball bag looks considerably less 'stuffed' than usual. "Gonna have to check out the sports shops in San Fran ..."

    It's a fight to get the spider off, especially as it appears to absorb the fireflies and change. Benedicta's claws and Talia's light saber make the thing flinch enough that Serrah's baseballs in conjunction with Aurelia trying to shove it off finally get it dislodged. It bounces and skids across the rocky ground, landing half-submerged in the soulfire pool.
    There's an ugly flailing of legs and awful clicking as the spider begins to burn away into ash from the inside out, being consumed by the supernal nature of the pool's contents. The winds are still picking up, swirling around the caldera and making it more difficult to hear. The webs are coming unanchored, caught by the winds.
    Aurelia frees herself from the webbing with the others' help. She shouts, fighting to be heard above the winds. "Time to go!"

    Serrah looks around at Aurelia's exclamation. There's no way she can get out of here with everyone with time stopped, sooo ... she just takes off and starts gliding down the mountain. Not at top speed -- she tries to match her pace with everyone else, just in case someone needs help ...

Benedicta leaps off the spider and goes to grab the human doll before the webbing comes completely lose. Her claws disappear and her horn glows yellow once again as tentacles beginning growing out of her back. They tightly embrace the doll, she doesn't want to lose her grasp on it after all. Of course this limits the al-mir'aj girl to leaping as far as escape goes, she can't grow wings and tentacles at the same time.

    Talia nods, as she stows her lightsaber. Once the creature's gone they have no reason to stick around. "Let's get going." She says, taking off in a sprint with the others.

    As the four of them reach the base of the mountain, the storm takes on a decidedly ominous look. While it is contained within the caldera, it roils upward, illuminated from within by the soulfire it has lifted from the pool. Like a supernatural firestorm, this column of wind and magical substance continues upwards into the sky. It takes some time before it ebbs, but the light within the mountain is no longer there. At no point do the winds threaten anything outside the caldera, leaving the investigators unharmed.
    The sky above has dimmed into a proper night-time, the stars clear and bright above. The Big Dipper and Orion are easily identified. All the houses are gone from the slopes, the trees aren't twisted mockeries but instead carry red and gold leaves of autumn.
    The woman rests against one of the trees on the mountain slope, looking at the stars as Zero paces, waiting for the others to arrive.
    Aurelia huffs and puffs as she approaches Zero, out of breath from running hard from what she thought was going to be the death of her. She finally slows her pace and flumps heavily against the same tree. She says each person's name as she counts heads. Aurelia though, was likely one of the last to arrive, as much as her armor slows her down. "Oookay... Everybody got all their pieces? No missing fingers? Any misplaced facial features?" She takes off her helmet and feels her own face to check.

    Serrah shakes her head. "Not unless I spontaneously got my shapeshifting back and it messed up," she says dryly. "So, uh ..."

    She reaches into her sports bag and pulls out the diamond she'd pulled from the light which Baroness Spider and Dr. Worm had been messing with. "Any idea what this is?"

    Talia lets out a heavy breath once they're out and clear of the mountain cavern. "I'm fine." She answers Aurelia gently. THe Mirialan eyes Serrah curiously, cocking an eyebrow as the half-vamp rummages in her bag and produces the diamond.

Benedicta is completely exhausted from having to Twin Soul and then hop for her life. The tentacles vanish from her back and she grabs the doll dangling it with one arm. "Ugh, that was quite a workout, I have no idea what that is unless they stole to pay the bills."

    Aurelia whews... then looks at what Serrah has. "I have _no_ idea. Probably have to ask my men-ack!" Zero is licking her face, a low rumbling sound standing in for the big cat's purr. Cats are gonna cat no matter how big they are it seems.
    The woman hums a vaguely familiar tune. "The stars look very different today~. Oh...." She blushes with embarassment for a moment, figeting with the cuff of her intricately patterned spider silk outfit. "I'm Ariana Wolfe. Thanks for freeing me." She glances at the thing Serrah has. "I... think it was meant to control somebody, but it wasn't finished." She scratches her dark hair thoughtfully. "I-I'm sorry I can't help more, it's like trying to remember a bad dream."

    Talia nods with a tired if genuine smile. "Of course, Ms. Wolfe. It's no trouble at all. We...hmm. That was certainly an adventure. What exactly do you remember before it?"

    Serrah sighs softly, and shakes her head. "I've ... been under someone's control, too," she says quietly. "So I know how you feel." For now, she simply leaves it at that.

    She offers the diamond to Aurelia. "Think your guys can figure this out?" she says. "Or at least handle things from here?"

"My money's on Sybil or me, if they were looking for Mephy." Benedicta figures that's likely the case. "Then again I have no idea how many maho that the ass-monkey has created. Yeah, I think's it best we keep Sybil in the dark about this for now at least. She might try and make another power grab if she knows Baroness is no longer an issue. Or the Cabal might go full civil war." She realizes that's there's no left to keep Oakland and San Francisco in check now.

    Ariana thinks. "I remember 1989 and the Presidential Inauguration, thinking about the spring semester at college. Doctor Mendel was my thesis adv- Oh that *asshole*." She stops suddenly as she figures out who Doctor Worm really is.
    Aurelia nods and takes the diamond from Serrah. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can." She nods understandingly to Benedicta. "Definitely not something Sybil should know."
    Zero chimes in quietly. "Without the ignis deorum, this realm will fade away in a few months." 
    Aurelia looks at Zero, puzzled. "You keep saying ignis deorum, but that stuff is what Orania calls soulfire."
    Zero rumbles a bit. "Prometheus taught humans how to use magic, using the little spark of ignis deorum you all have. That was the gods' fire he 'stole', and why he was punished so severely. Humans call it soulfire, us spirits call it by its proper name."

    Talia looks confused, but nods. At least her memory's okay...ish. "Aurelia, what year is it in this world exactly?" She asks, when she realizes something, before she shuts up and listens. She thinks she's heard this tale before, on her travels. The Greek god who taught fire to man...

    It's not a tale that ends well, like many regarding the Greek pantheon.

"2021. Wait, so you were Baroness Spider for over 30 years? Looks we'll have to go hunting through old newspapers now. Well, I'm not sure if college will let you pick up where you were 30 years ago." Benedicta can't help but to make a bad joke. "Also, we're going to have to track down Mephy now, hopefully that doesn't take 30 years."

    Serrah answers Talia, "I think Fourth Age, Seven Twen-- wait no." She shakes her head. "Yeah, what Bene said. Wow, I'm out of it." Another yawn escapes her. "Ugh. I need a freaking drink."

    She simply frowns at the Promethean story. "So that's how that went here, huh ..."